A Roundup of ABA Programming at BookExpo

The BookExpo 2017 conference program begins next Wednesday, May 31, at the Javits Convention Center in New York City and runs through Friday, June 2. The ABA Member Lounge and Galley Room (Booth 721 on the trade show floor) will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday; the Remainders Pavilion on the trade show floor will open at 1:00 p.m. The entire BookExpo show floor will be open on Thursday, June 1, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Friday, June 2, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Kickoff Parties

All ABA member booksellers are invited to two parties on Tuesday, May 30, to celebrate the start of the 2017 trade show.

From 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., booksellers can socialize with publishers and editors from the small press member publishers of Community of Literary Magazines and Presses at the CLMP Small Press Mingle. Those who are planning to attend the event at CLMP’s offices (154 Christopher Street, Suite 3C) should RSVP to CLMP Director of Programs and Strategic Communications Natalie Mesnard and include their name and professional affiliation in the e-mail. Attendees will also need to sign in at the door.

From 9:00 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday, booksellers are invited to enjoy nightcaps at a party hosted by Penguin Random House at the District M café/lounge at The Row Hotel (Hotel ABA), located at 700 Eighth Avenue in New York City.

Booksellers should wear their BookExpo badges to both parties.

The ABA Member Lounge & Galley Room

As always, the ABA Member Lounge & Galley Room will be the exclusive place for booksellers to relax, have a snack, and meet with their colleagues from across the country.

This year’s lounge, Booth 721 on the Javits Convention Center’s trade show floor, will offer a galley room and exclusive author meet-and-greets as well as information on ABA programs and services from affiliated business partners, including LIBRIS, Libro.fm, Shelf Awareness, the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation, and W.G. Ellerkamp. ABA staff will also be on hand for one-on-one meetings with booksellers regarding IndieCommerce, advocacy issues, education, and more. And for the first time, the ABA Member Lounge will be the site of a reception featuring finalists and winners of the Children’s Book Council’s Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards.

The ABA Member Lounge & Galley Room will be open to booksellers with ABA member badges at the following times:

• Wednesday, May 31, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• Thursday, June 1, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (closed from 2:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. for the ABA Annual Membership Meeting and Town Hall)
• Friday, June 2, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

ABA Member Lounge & Galley Room Autographing Schedules

On Wednesday, May 31, from 2:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., authors and illustrators will autograph following the Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch.

On Thursday, June 1, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and Friday, June 2, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., authors will autograph following the Adult and Children’s Book & Author breakfasts, respectively.  And from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Friday,  Chris Finan, director of the American Booksellers for Free Expression, will be signing his forthcoming title from Beacon Press, Drunks: An American History.

See the current list of authors signing in the lounge here.

ABC/CBC Reception for Children’s and Teen Choice Book Award Winners and Finalists

On Friday, June 2, from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the ABA Member Lounge & Galley Room, booksellers are invited to a reception for the winners and finalists for the Children’s Book Council’s Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards. Participating authors include Mo Willems, Lisa Papp, Bob Raczka, Laura Gehl, Joyce Wan, Leigh Bardugo, Rachel Renée Russel, Nikki Russell, Don Tate, and MarcyKate Connelly.

Refreshments will be served and limited quantities of the award winners’ books will be available in the lounge’s galley room. In addition, the winner of a raffle for a brand-new Elephant & Piggie spinner from Disney Publishing, along with a set of Elephant & Piggie books, will be announced. Stores that join the ABC Children’s Group by noon ET on Friday, June 2, will automatically be entered in the raffle; booksellers do not need to be present to win.

IndieCommerce One-on-Ones

During lounge hours, ABA members can meet one-on-one with a staff member to learn about IndieCommerce, the premier e-commerce and online marketing solution for independent bookstores, and IndieLite, a new platform designed for stores just starting with e-commerce and those with limited time and resources.

Since time slots for the meetings are limited, booksellers are asked to choose multiple options when they sign up; walk-ins will also be welcome.

Meet the Editor

There’s still time for booksellers from ABA member stores to sign up for Meet the Editor, which will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 31, at various publishing houses around the city. The sign-up deadline has been extended to Wednesday, May 31.

The structure of the editor meetings will vary by publisher and are meant to give a behind-the-scenes look at the philosophy and process of book editing. Sign up for Meet the Editor here; assignments will be sent before the trade show. Questions should be e-mailed to ABA’s Joy Dallanegra-Sanger and Jessica Stauffer.

Celebration of Bookselling and Author Awards Lunch

This year’s Celebration of Bookselling Lunch, which will be held on Wednesday, May 31, from noon to 1:30 p.m., will feature remarks by author James Patterson, as well as the presentation of the 2017 Indies Choice Book Awards and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Awards and the introduction of Indie Next List authors and award nominees. Many of the authors in attendance will be signing in the ABA Member Lounge following the event.

The celebration lunch is now booked to capacity. Registered booksellers will receive their seat assignments via e-mail by Friday, May 26. Questions about the Celebration should be e-mailed to ABA’s Matthew Zoni.

Publicists Speed Dating

Publicists Speed Dating sessions will be held from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31, and from 9:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on Friday, June 2, at the convention center. Registered ABA member bookstore owners, managers, and event coordinators will meet one-on-one with five to six different publicists at each session. Assignments have been e-mailed to registrants. Booksellers with questions should e-mail ABA’s Joy Dallanegra-Sanger and Jessica Stauffer.

The Silent Art Auction to Benefit ABFE and Every Child a Reader, featuring the Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards

All BookExpo registrants are invited to purchase tickets for the popular Silent Art Auction of children’s book art, to be held from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Silent Auction check-in will begin at 5:00 p.m. in Room 1E12/13/14 of the Javits Center, followed, at 5:30, by the announcement of the Children’s and Teen Choice Book Award winners. The Silent Auction will then be held from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the South Corridor.

Auction tickets for ABA member booksellers are priced at $11, a 90 percent discount off the regular price of $110; to receive the discount, booksellers must be logged in to BookWeb when ordering. Discounts are also available to librarians and friends of ABFE and the CBC with the use of special discount codes.

ABA Education Sessions

ABA will present four education sessions at BookExpo:

• Edelweiss+ for Booksellers will take place on Thursday, June 1, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Room 1E16. Above the Treeline Education and Outreach Coordinator Joe Foster and Above the Treeline CEO John Rubin will provide book buyers with the tools and tips they need to successfully migrate over to the newly revamped service, Edelweiss+.
• Hiring for Diversity, which will take place on Thursday, June 1, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Room 1E10, will feature speaker Mecca E. Santana, Esq., vice president of diversity and community relations and chief diversity officer for Westchester Medical Health Network. Santana will discuss best practices for hiring diversely as well as for recruiting and retaining talent, especially in a time of limited resources.
• For Authors: Working With Independent Bookstores will take place on Thursday, June 1, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Room 1E02/1E03. Developed specifically for authors, this panel features booksellers who have formulated best practices to create events that benefit both stores and authors. The session will cover a number of issues, from author publicity to dealing with pre-event nerves. The panel will feature Pete Mulvihill of Green Apple Books in San Francisco; Susan Hans O’Connor of Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, Pennsylvania; Valerie Koehler of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas; and Emmanuel Rivers of A Cappella Books in Atlanta, Georgia.
• ABFE Presents: Selling Controversial Books: A Conversation, which will take place on Friday, June 2, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in Room 1E10, will bring together four prominent booksellers in a discussion about how to handle the sale of controversial books, including how to approach stocking a title that bookstore staff oppose or what to do when a customer complains about a particular title. The panel will feature Lissa Muscatine, co-owner of Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.; Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books in Miami; Monica Odom, events coordinator at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, N.J.; and Vanessa Martini, associate buyer for City Lights Books in San Francisco. The panel, which is sponsored by American Booksellers for Free Expression, will be moderated by Michael A. Bamberger, general counsel for Media Coalition, which defends the First Amendment rights of media and entertainment.

Booksellers Present Indies Introduce Authors

From 11:15 a.m. to noon on Thursday on the Downtown Stage, booksellers will hear from their colleagues who served on the panels that chose the adult and children’s titles for the Summer/Fall Indies Introduce program. Many of the debut authors will be present to read a short passage from their work and to answer a question posed by a panelist.

ABA Town Hall and Annual Membership Meeting

All ABA members are encouraged to attend’ the Annual Membership Meeting to be held from 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, June 1. The meeting agenda will include the formal announcement of ABA’s election results, reports from the president and CEO, a membership and financial update, and the opportunity for members to bring old and/or new business to the attention of the Board of Directors.

The Membership Meeting will be preceded by ABA’s Town Hall meeting, which provides booksellers with the opportunity to express their concerns and share ideas with ABA Board members and staff in a less formal setting. The Town Hall will take place from 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Both meetings will be held in Room 1E12/1E13/1E14 of the convention center.

To provide an opportunity for as many members as possible to speak during the Town Hall, a sign-up sheet will be prominently displayed starting Wednesday morning, May 31, in the ABA Member Lounge. In addition, members who do not wish to speak at the Town Hall but would like the Board to discuss certain issues can note those topics on the sign-up sheet. Questions about the Town Hall and/or the Annual Membership meetings should be addressed to Membership and Marketing Officer Meg Smith.

ABA’s Consolidated Financial Statements (2016 and 2015) and Form 990 are now available to ABA members with a BookWeb username and password in the Governance section of BookWeb.org.

Information about all of ABA’s programming at BookExpo is available here.

Information about the complete BookExpo schedule, including An Evening with Hillary Rodham Clinton, the BookExpo Editors’ Buzz Panels, the Adult and Children’s Book and Author Breakfasts, and more, can be found on the BookExpo website.